QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS OF HEALTH COMMUNICATION PROGRAMS AMONG THE SCHEDULED TRIBE POPULATION IN WAYANAD, KERALA

Abstract

This research paper begins in a state of Kerala, which has its health indices mostly in par with developed economies and still having challenging health conditions among the tribal populations (Health Index, 2019). Tribal populations which consist around 1.5% of the total population are still facing problems, like high death rate, malnutrition, mental disorders etc. There have been many welfare programs and schemes both at the national and state level conducted in order to bring up their health status. However, the prevailing health condition of the tribal communities in Kerala is attributed to many other factors like socio economic condition, illiteracy, negative attitude towards health care etc. The current health communication programs among the tribal communities are ASHA workers launched by National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) and Tribal Promoters by the Scheduled Tribal Department of Kerala. The main objective of this study is to explore and assess the nature of health communication done through the Tribal Promoters and ASHA workers in Wayanad, in order to establish whether lack of proper communication is one of the reasons behind the poor health status in the communities. The study conducted was qualitative exploratory study. In depth interview and focus group discussion was conducted among the ASHA workers and Tribal promoters. QDA miner lite software was used to analyze the collected data. Through this study it was found that current health communication strategies by the government is appreciable, but it can improve its efficiency by dealing with some of the major cultural, anthropological and technological approaches.